Aster
by Eziana
Summary: She woke up in an unfamilliar room with no recallection of the past. Oh well, that's fine. She always been one to adapt. At least that's what she thinks. OC-Centric. Gen.
1. Never Father But Always Be Papa

The past had always been a fuzzy topic for her but she at least knew.

The man in front is not her father.

One day, she woke up in an unfamiliar room. It was cheerful and kid-ish enough, she concluded it was a child's.

Then, the man came. He looks somewhat fancy with his fancy neat clothes and slick black hair to match. He has a pair of beautiful green eyes, she was caught staring as the man chuckled amusingly.

The man crouches down to her eye-level and slowly introduced himself.

His name was Dwayne. Her father.

The whole sentence feels so wrong. You're lying. The words she wanted to point out but held back because it burns. Her whole mouth feels like it was in flames yet her voice won't come out. Not one squeak.

Instead, she nods unsurely making the man beam and the sensation finally melts away.

Dwayne -not her father. Began to explain, her name was Amanda. She already wants to hurl with it tasting sickening sweet. There was an accident and she had a concussion. He told her he needed to run some test to make sure she's fine so she agrees. Anything to get away from that burning feeling.

* * *

Her days would start with him visiting her. They would talk and played. Sometimes he even gave her gifts range from sweets to dresses to books. There were times his visits last for an hour, some until her bedtime. He would then read her a bedtime story and wishes her goodnight. It was sweet that's why she decided to call him 'Papa'.

He will never be her father but he would forever be her Papa. As the same, she would never be his daughter but will always be his Amanda.

* * *

Amanda tossed and turns before giving up sleeping. Something at the back of her head just keeps bugging her to be awake.

As if answering her untold question, her steel door suddenly came down with a bang. Three boys appeared on top, two looks at her with widening eyes while last merely smirk all knowingly. His clothes were also stained with red unlike the previous two.

Amanda didn't screams nor shy away from the situation. She only blinks and shifted from her position to get a better view of them. Chains rattled as she lazily drawls, "Question. Are you supposed to be my long lost brothers?"


	2. Sweet Bittery Sweet

Hello, strangers and readers! Thanks for taking interest in this fic which bloom from my journey of procrastinating. Jk, actually it's half-half since this was a small bunny for an original OC story but Mukuro came in like a wrecking-ball.

If you guys haven't notice then as **_ReadingReadererReader_** suggest, last chapter was in fact placed in the Estraneo laboratory and for extra details a minor 1 year time-skip was place on the last section where the protagonist meets the pre-Kokuyo group.

Well, hope you guys enjoy this update! Until next time! (^_^)/

* * *

Amanda paused mid-step and turns around, taking in the first and last look of her previous house. A hollow of a shell. The words sound right in her ears. It never truly was home. The person who was wasn't even there anymore.

"Oi."

She snapped out of her trance and found herself face-to-face with a blond boy. Ken, her mind supplied.

"Sorry," She said, looking straight to his glare. She doesn't blame him for being offensive. Their situation was different as night and day. Just because they're running together doesn't mean they get along.

Ken released her wrist and grunts, nudging his head upfront. Huh. He could just leave her alone in the woods to get maul by but he didn't.

Amanda agrees, Ken is a sweet person.

* * *

She toyed with the topic since the seven hours they met. It was pure curiousity. "Why are you the leader?"

He —Mukuro watched her with amusement flickered in his eyes. If he notices the other two flinched at her question, he didn't voice it. Neither did her.

He hums. "I never said I was."

"Well, you implied you were." She paused, tasting sweetness before continuing. "There's also a fact nobody questions you orders before."

"Orders? Must be your imagination." He easily dismissed and smiles. "Don't you think?"

Eyes are windows of the soul. It was easy enough for her to catch the hidden message resides them. It was counterproductive to cause a fraction in their little group. So she drops the topic and continued her assigned task.

She always did knew. From the very beginning. Mukuro was a very bitter boy.

* * *

Chikusa was the quiet one between the three. He was also the one who avoid her very existence at all cost. While she doesn't mind it because she understands where his discomfort comes from but having no minimal interaction between them would cause work to be unproductive, rising more problems than accomplishing them.

After finishing observing the boy for a day, Amanda reached a conclusion and decided to be blunt with it.

"Chikusa, are you scared of me?"

"O-of course not." The boy shuttered at the sudden question.

She looks at him unimpressed, "You just averted your eyes."

Chikusa stayed mum while his grip on his dirtied shirt tightens.

 _This won't go anywhere like this._ She sighs, "Enough." Flinching back how at her own tone and guessed he had rights to be intimidated of her. She knows she wasn't the most pleasant-looking person. What can a soothing voice do when you look like death itself? Soothe them to death maybe.

"Chikusa..." Amanda lowers her voice, hoping not to scare him off more. She opens her mouth to continue but the words just wouldn't budge from her mouth. The heavy bitterness pouring onto her taste buds made her realise how crucial this conversation was. One wrong wording and she'll ruin her only chances to change her lighting.

Amanda didn't know she was deep in thoughts until she registered someone's touch, granting a silver sweetness to existence. She snapped her eyes to see Chikusa with a hint of fright in his dark-blue eyes, awkwardly patting her head. Or trying to since she was taller by an inch.

"What are you doing?"

The boy flushed in embarrassment but brave himself to answer. "I –You look sad and… She always does this when I'm sad… So I.." His voice trailed, head lowered. Forcing himself not to cry.

It was sudden and out of place but Amanda felt a certain kinship towards him. As someone who had also experienced both care and the lost.

"Thank you." She poured all the sincerity she could muster into it. He needs to know she really is thankful despite her liability to smile. "You are a kind boy, Chikusa."

He squeaks in embarrassment but a smile bloom across his face. (It was small but still is.)

Amanda resolved, Chikusa is a sweet child and deserves better.

* * *

They were strangers, forming this ragtag of a group just to live. Doubts and suspicion hang in the air but Amanda has little care of it.

They came to her, the first of her age. The longest she could remember. If they desire was to survive then It's hers to fulfil.


	3. Bonding over Pain

As far as she remembers, (which was meeting Papa for the first time) Amanda never really lean towards neither like nor dislike. She often just took things to stride and make due with what she has.

 _"How do you like your gifts, Amanda?"_

 _"They're fine. Thank you for giving them, Papa."_

 _"You don't like your new book?"_

 _She shook her head. "It's not that. I just don't fully understand it. Can you read it to me, Papa?"_

But at rare circumstances, she actually does lean to one side. For example, her annoyance is near the borderline of dislike right now.

"Ken, I told you. We can't eat that. It's poisonous. Put them back where you found them."

Ken rolled his eyes and snort. "Yeah, right! Like that's true! They taste just fine! See!" Ken grabbed a mushroom and swallowed it. "Nogurb hapfern! -gulp- You're just being a pussy!"

Amanda stared at his bravado indifferently before turning her attention to the pile and study the mushrooms closer. She reach to a realization, counting one to sixty in her mind while ignoring her companion taunts. Suddenly, she heard a thud and flickered her eyes to see Ken clutching his stomach on the ground.

"Arghhh... What's happening to me..."

"Nothing serious." Amanda said nonchalantly. "You just got food poisoning by eating a poison mushroom."

Ken howls, "Why didn't you warned me before?!"

Amanda raised a brow and shook her head. "Sorry, I just remembered after you ate them." She stood up. "Just lie there for a second. I think the herbs Chikusa gathered are right for the antidote." Then paused. "Just in case, dig a hole. A really deep one. You might experience diarrhoea." Amanda walks away, ignoring his cries.

"What?! Don't leave me!"

Papa told her once, there are people who would only learn their lesson the hard way. Ken seems exactly that kind of person.

* * *

"Feeling better, Ken?" Amanda asked as she rubs his back in circulate motions.

He rasped, "I feel like puking."

Amanda hums, continuing rubbing his back. "That's normal."

They stayed like that for a few minutes. Chikusa was out gathering more herbs after hearing the food poisoning while their apparent leader went hunting for fish, ignorant to the accident. Amanda ponders whether it was needed to report but decided against it. At most, Ken had to go behind the bushes multiple times. No need to disturb their _leader_ -dearest.

"Oi, are listening to me?" Amanda broke out for her thoughts.

"Sorry, I wasn't." She came out honestly. "Can you repeat that?"

Ken glares at her but strangely comply with her request. "How did you know all this?"

She paused, weighting the pros and cons before coming to a conclusion. "It was in a book Papa gave to me. He thought I would like it." Surprisingly, Ken didn't deliver his usual rants about her Papa. She furrowed her eyebrows and observed the silent boy.

After some moments, Ken decided to break the silence. "What's a book?"

She wasn't surprised by him not knowing and answered in the simplest way he could understand.

"What's it called then?"

You have many questions, "The Wonders of Nature," she said, fighting back the urge to pointing out his unusual sudden interest. She hates it when things go very bitter.

"So," Ken shifts awkwardly. "It's about poison mushrooms?"

Amused rose inside the raven. "A section of it is. There's also a section about its antidote and other stuff."

"Your dad gave it to you because you like it."

"Papa." She corrected him. "And he thought I would like it, not after confirming it. But he was right, I did. What's with that face?" She raised a brow, seeing his face all scrunched up.

"I can't tell if you really like it. Your face looks like Kakipi but creepier because it never changes and has those creepy black eyes."

"Ken, you said creepy twice." She pointed out, not feeling offended at his reasoning. "When we're in town, we need to raise your vocabulary."

"I don't need some vocub-whatsyoumucallit! I can speak just fine!"

"Of course, Ken. Of course."

Even though her face never expresses it, she always felt a certain fondness towards the blond. If Ken wasn't so _him_ , maybe she'll let him know that too.

"So where is it?" He asked, feeling a bit better than before.

Amanda was about to say what where but stopped after having an inkling what he was asking about. "I didn't bring it along. It's still in my room."

"What?!"

She waved. "It'll be fine. I at least remember some important parts of it. I could teach you how to differentiate between normal and poisonous mushroom.

"Because you're _obsessed_ with poison." He said with conviction.

Amanda sigh, "For the last time, I'm not obsessed. I just felt something about it. "

"Because you're obsessed."

After much argument, Amanda gave up and ignore the whole thing. She went back to her previous topic "It's pretty easy to learn it with your heighten senses and— Ken?"

He didn't respond. She moved closer to him. "Ken? Is something wrong?"

He mumbled, "Can I not used them?"

Ah. Amanda remembered her and they both went quiet again before Amanda decided to break it "It's your choice, Ken." She spoke softly, reminiscing her time with Papa. It was the same words Papa would say to her multiple times a day. Always reminding her the choice is hers to make; to eat or not, to play or not, to do or not. What right does she have to make them for him?

She stood up. "I won't push you. The book enlisted other methods to distinguished them. Now, come on," Amanda offered him a hand which the blond looks at the gesture as something foreign. "We need to replace the poison mushrooms with new ones."

When Ken finally took her hand, Amanda was surprise how small it was in hers. He looks about 1-2 years younger than her but his hand told her he led a different life. Hers was soft but his were rough yet fragile, mostly thin due to malnutrition. She wonders when the last time it felt soft.

She already took a vow after getting to know Chikusa. She _will_ have them **survive**.

"Now listen, you can-"


End file.
